Show and tell: new fabric

If I stop for minute and think of it, most sewing bloggers will show you their fabric, their patterns and the garments created from those.

Now, I don't often show you my patterns for obvious reasons. I make my own, so getting the same thing is impossible. And I only do how-to's if I think it's pattern which can be made by someone without serious drafting skills.

It will be clear to anyone that I am showing you the garments I make. It's sort of hard to miss because those make up most of my posts. And sometimes, usually with more involved projects like the jacket, I even remember to blog about the work in progress.

But why don't I show you my fabric?

I don't really know. I could say it's because I don't always buy fabric with a specific project in mind and I often buy out of season, but that doesn't quite make sense. After all, lots of other bloggers show what they buy for their stashes...

So, I'm not going to spend more of your and my time fretting about reasons. I'm going to show you the fabric I bought last week.

Firstly, I went to the market on Saturday and came across a stall which was selling various cotton fabrics at 2 euros a meter or 3 meters for 5 euros...

I bought 3 meters of this madras check with the interesting seersucker-style puckering in the weave. I think it's a good quality fabric but the obvious projects to make with it would be rather preppy looking. I will have to come up with a very different way of using it to make it work for me. I'm think about a slim shape with the fabric gathered or draped on.

I also bought 3 meters of this rambling floral with its almost nautical colour scheme. This cotton is very soft and drapy and I think it might work very well for me in different kinds of garments.

And in the upper left corner, there's a fun little detail... No idea whether or not it's the real thing.

Then, on Wednesday, I went with M and the two girls who are doing work experience with her, to a local fabric store which will go out of bussiness by the end of next month. We are planning to go back there early next month, so I did practice restraint and didn't even look at my usual 'target', nice woolen fabrics. But, at 10 euros a meter I did buy these:

1.5 meter of raw silk in a changant colour of gold and bright green and 2 meters of silk charmeuse in coral red (the colours are much more vibrant in reality than in the picture). I plan to make a fitted, shift-like dress from the green and something nicely draped from the red fabric, but I'm still pondering the details.

As usual when fabric shopping, I wondered about what else I might have and maybe should have bought the moment I walked out the door. But my stash is big enough. And at least I did get some silk, which is not a standard fabric for me. And we'll go again before the shop closes.

What can I say? I guess I'm always greedy for good fabric...